Conductor, composer, keyboardist, Mark Sirett (b. 1952) was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2022 in recognition for his work as a composer and conductor and community leader. He is the Founding Artistic Director of the award-winning Cantabile Choirs of Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He holds both masters and doctoral degrees in choral conducting from the University of Iowa. Dr. Sirett has taught at the University of Alberta, Western University and Queen’s University.
He has won two international awards in conducting: the Jury Prize for Imaginative Programming and Artistry at the 2002 Cork International Choral Festival, and Outstanding Conductor at the 2004 Young Prague Festival. In 2009, he was the recipient of the President’s Leadership Award from Choirs Ontario and a Paul Harris Fellow from Rotary International. He is a Distinguished Alumnus of Grant MacEwan University, Edmonton and recipient of The Mayor’s Award for the Arts-Creator, City of Kingston, 2019.
Dr. Sirett is an award-winning composer whose works have been performed, recorded and broadcast by leading ensembles worldwide, including Chanticleer, VocalEssence and Elora Singers. Two of his works have been awarded Outstanding Choral Composition from Choral Canada: “The Stars Point the Way” 2010 and “Words, Stories, Truth–A Trilogy in Honour of Canada’s Indigenous People” 2018. He is recipient of the inaugural Ruth Watson Henderson Composition Prize from Choirs Ontario. Commissions have included works for the National Youth Choir of Canada, Canadian Men’s Chorus, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Association of Music in International Schools, University of Iowa, International Voices of Luxembourg, Amabile Youth Choir, and Richard Eaton Singers, Edmonton to name a few. His published works are found in the catalogues of Boosey & Hawkes, Oxford University Press, Hal Leonard, Cypress, ECS Publishing, Walton, Hinshaw, Alliance, Santa Barbara, Carus Verlag, Augsburg/Fortress, Alfred, Canadian International and GIA Publications. In 2020 he became the curator of a new series of Canadian choral music for low voices with Cypress Music, Profondo: The Mark Sirett Series.
Mark is frequently in demand as a guest conductor and clinician. He has directed the APAC Festival Choir in South Korea, AMIS European High School Women’s Honours Choir, Luxembourg and twice, Unisong in Ottawa on Canada Day. Other engagements include the Ontario Youth Choir, Alberta Honours Children’s Chorus, Manitoba Provincial Honours Children’s Choir, Saskatchewan Treble Choir Project, Waterloo District High School Festival, Meet the Composer Festival (Des Moines IA), MoZaik Festival in Ottawa, Peel School Board Honours Chamber Choir and the adult and children’s camps for the Nova Scotia Choral Federation. As a clinician, he has presented for Choral Canada, Choirs Ontario, Nova Scotia Music Educators, Nova Scotia Choral Federation, Manitoba Choral Association, Saskatchewan Music Educators, British Columbia Choral Federation, Ontario Vocals Festival, the Royal Canadian College of Organists and the Royal School of Church Music.
As an adjudicator Dr. Sirett served on the Jury of the Cork International Choral Festival in 2009; he has frequently adjudicated choral festivals in Canada including Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg. He has been clinician/adjudicator for SingONtario, SaskSings, ChorFest Alberta and ChorFest Manitoba.
He is former Organist and Music Director of St. George’s Cathedral, Kingston. Under his direction the Girl Choristers won first prize in the CBC Competition for Amateur Choirs in the Church Choir division. Since founding the Cantabile Choirs in the fall of 1996, the choirs have received numerous distinctions at the regional, national and international levels. Recognized for creative programming, the choirs were awarded ‘Outstanding Choral Event 2010’ by the Association of Canadian Choral Communities for ‘Brown Eagle, Black Raven’, a concert that honoured aboriginal cultures of the world.